Chrissie and Sacha sit at the bedside of Rachel, whose last chance at beating cancer is a bone marrow transplant from half-brother Daniel

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Holby City (BBC1, 8pm)

Michael Spence throws a massive strop tonight because the family of his dying teenage patient are callously staying away from the hospital.

It’s a bit like how Sacha’s ex-wife hasn’t visited Holby once to look in on her stepdaughter Rachel who’s having cancer treatment.

Rachel’s last chance now is a bone marrow transplant from her half-brother Daniel, but Sacha still hasn’t told Chrissie that Daniel has a hole in his heart because he knows that if Chrissie finds this out, she’d never let Daniel go through with this procedure.

That’s how desperate Sacha is – that he’d hide such a massive and rather important secret from Chrissie.

And when she inevitably finds out it’s not likely she’ll ever be able to forgive him.

The woman who’s already slept with an embarrassing number of Holby doctors ends up storming out of the hospital and hopping straight into Michael’s car – and if you want to find out exactly how that pans out, hit the red button at 9pm for an extra episode.

It’s Holby’s first ever red button episode and if you’re scandalised that Chrissie puts Daniel in Michael’s car without the benefit of a child booster seat, we suspect that might not be her only lapse of judgement tonight.

Eve Myles as Frankie Maddox in Frankie

Frankie (BBC1, 9pm)

Eve Myles’ tireless district nurse ends her first series tonight torn between her ex-boyfriend Ian and colleague Andy.

That’s assuming of course that neither of them turns out to be her stalker, who this week changes tack and breaks in to her house to tidy up and do her ironing.

Who wouldn’t love a stalker like that? Although there’s been no official word yet on whether there’ll be a second series, there’s a definite “to be continued” vibe about the way this episode is wrapped up so it seems more than likely she’ll be back. In any case there’s so much life fizzying around in Frankie I imagine she’d be harder to kill off than Rasputin even if you wanted to.

In fact, before she bows out tonight, two more people are in urgent need of her extra-special Frankie care – and one of them isn’t even a patient.

Vet Steve Leonard with a newborn giraffe at Marwell Zoo

Nature’s Newborns (ITV1, 7.30pm)

Here’s a bit of a no-brainer when it comes to sure-fire audience pleasers: baby animals.

Just point a camera at them and the job’s a good ‘un.

We’ve got eight weeks of this to look forward to with TV Vet Steve Leonard travelling up and down the UK visiting zoos, farms, and people’s homes to coo over wobbly new arrivals.

As we witness the birth of a litter of Dalmatian pups and the arrival of a baby orangutan at Twycross Zoo, it’s in danger at times of becoming the animal world equivalent of Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute.

But as it’s on at tea-time there’s some rather coy blurring going on at the business end of things.

Steve also heads to The Wash in Norfolk where this week’s award for Most Cute goes to a stranded baby seal named Jessica Jane. But be warned: Baby animal stories can end in an Aaargh! as well as an Aah!

Harry Wallop has set himself the challenge of getting loads of stuff for free

Something for Nothing (8pm Channel 4)

Consumer journalist Harry Wallop sets himself the challenge of getting loads of stuff for free: a night out, a new wardrobe, a steak dinner in a fancy restaurant and even a shave.

All of which is considerably easier if a) you live in London b) you’ve got a film crew with you and c) you’re a consumer journalist called Harry Wallop. Even so, you’ll be impressed by the bride who sourced £30,000 worth of wedding stuff using free-cycling websites.

SOAP ROUND-UP

Emmerdale (ITV1, 7pm)

Rhona is off to her first druggie support group today, telling Paddy that she’s taken up Pilates for her bad back.

But you know the trouble with these support groups?

They’re full of drug addicts and Rhona panics when she realises she doesn’t fit in.

On a positive note, judging by the speed she legs it out of there, her back is definitely much better.

Eastenders (BBC1, 7.30pm)

More addiction woes in EastEnders where Lauren finally admits to her dad that she can’t stop drinking.

And Sam’s half-hearted attempts to leave Walford are foiled yet again when the spare parts gods conspire to stop his new car from ever getting fixed.

But he uses the time wisely by telling Ava how great they are together. For a bloke who walked out on her and Dexter 20 years ago without so much as a goodbye, he’s quite the talker.